Steerpike

Well, today was a good day!

I decided to call the UK Helpline (011 44 191 203 7010) today to see where things were. After being a bit intimidated by the Auto-Attendant ('she' really grills you and I had every expectation that I was going to get dumped, but after being told 'volume is unusually high', I was connected almost immediately to a helpful guy with a nice, gentle, Indian accent. First, he confirmed receipt of my letter. Then he told me a reply had been send Feb 12 - almost 3 weeks ago. I asked him if it could be re-sent, he said I had to wait a full 3 weeks for that.

But then he told me the letter was confirming my eligibility for catchup payments at class 2 rates (3 GBP / week) for years 2006/7 through 2018/19 - 13 years in total. And the cost was amazing - about 156 GBP / year, or just over 2,000 GBP in total. He gave me the exact totals and then gave me the bank account, sort code, and an 18-character reference code to use with the online payment. He then suggested I call back in April to verify correct assignment of the payment. He also suggested that I can call back in April and get the numbers for the 2019/20 payment, and do this every year for the next 5 or 6 years so I can keep up. I immediately jumped online and made the payment as described.

So all in all, a fruitful call! Interestingly, I swung by my mailbox after the call and there was the letter from HMRC! The letter gave me the same totals, but did not give me the banking details (sort code, etc) that the guy gave me so I came out ahead. Also - the letter specifically said
"Important notice
As an overseas customer you'll need to quote your National Insurance number when sending any payments to us.
Please do not quote any other reference shown on our correspondence as this will mean that your payment will be
sent to another area of HMRC. This will delay us processing your payment."
Which would seem to contradict what the guy told me - he gave me an 18-character reference that was my NI number, 2 letters, and the first 8 characters of my last name. Anyway - I'll follow up in April and make sure all goes well.

It would seem that, if I add my original 8 years to the 13 above, and then make the next 6 annual payments until I reach retirement age, I will then have 27 out of 35 'full years'. And that suggests I will have 27/35 * 164.35 GBP * 52 = 6,592 GBP annual pension, which at 1.30 exchange rate would be $8,570 per year; not bad considering I'd written off my UK pension!

celticgrid

If you have a UK bank account you can simply set up a direct debit. Set once and forget, no fear of missing a year as the memory fades

moi

I used some of the websites that the OP advised just out of curiosity really and the following is the information it gave me. I am 50 and it states the following:

You can get your State Pension on 3 June 2036. Your forecast is £108.44 a week, £471.52 a month, £5,658.24 a year
Your forecast

• is not a guarantee and is based on the current law
• is based on your National Insurance record up to 5 April 2019
• assumes that you’ll contribute another 17 years
• does not include any increase due to inflation

You currently have 6 years on your record and you need at least 10 years to get any State Pension.

So would I be able to make any contributions, if so when? Not necessarily planning on moving back to the UK to work. Worked in the UK from 16 to 22 years old.

christmasoompa

Yes, same as the advice given to the OP, you can make voluntary contributions. If you can afford it, you can pay the maximum amount for the past (I think it's 6 yrs), then continue to contribute going forward. Not sure you'd quite get to a full pension, but worth checking. It's usually considered well worth it, as it's not very much at all (£3 a week) but you'll need to do the sums to see if it works for you. https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-nationa...-contributions

Steerpike

For reasons I'm unclear on (I think it was because I missed payments due to being overseas), I was not subject to the 6 year limit (obviously, as I posted above, since they told me I can make 13 years of catchup payments). Also, I can start making 'current' / 'future' payments for the next 5 years (till I reach retirement age). So I think this would apply to you, 'moi'. At 3 quid a week ($156/year), it's an amazing investment.

Now, they could change the rules in the future. But I doubt they'll change enough to make it not a good investment. You also need to look into 'WEP' - Windfall Elimination Provision' to see if your US Social Security could be affected. In my case, because I've made over 35 years of contributions to US SS, I'm not affected. There may be other reasons why somehow I may not get both pensions without issues, but overall it looks pretty good to me - an additional $8,000 per year on top of my US pension.

What I don't quite understand in your case is, if you've only made 6 years so far, and 'full' pension is about £165 (which requires 35 years), why would they say "Your forecast is £108.44 a week"? 108.44/165 = 0.65, and 0.65 * 35 = 23. So my guess is, their forecast assumes you do everything you can to catch up and stay current? Not sure.

But anyway - download the form NI38, fill it out the form CF83 at the bottom, send it in ... and wait! All should be revealed.

moi

Ok, thank you for the information. My current SS benefits statement states that I have earned enough credits to qualify for benefits and that if I continue working until full retirement (67) my payment would be about $1,920.00 per month, age 70-$2,433.00 per month and age 62 $1,212.00 per month. I have made 20 years of contributions to US SS benefits. I hope that catching up and collecting the UK pension would not affect my US SS pension payments and it would seem that it would not be worth doing it.
Anyway, I will print out the form and send it in and wait and see. Thanks for your help!

Steerpike

Regarding my post above, early March - oh how things have changed!. So a calendar reminder kicked off today to remind me to call HMRC to ensure the money got allocated to the correct account. Under the current (C-19) circumstances, I presume this would not be a worthwhile effort - I assume they are all under lockdown and this would not be considered a critical function? Or are they operating these call centers still? Anyone have any experience with calling them?

Steerpike

Update - I decided to give them a call anyway. The recording I got said they are operating reduced hours, and I'd just called minutes after the new cut-off (4pm UK time, I think it was). So I was about to simply wait till the next day, but I decided to go check online at my current status. To my surprise, I saw that my 'number of years' had jumped from 8 to 21, so the extra 13 years I paid for in February obviously made it through the system to the right account. I still want to talk to them to find out how much exactly I need to pay to catch up for 2019/20, but I can let that one rest for a while.